Stand Atlantic’s Bonnie Fraser talks ‘Coffee at Midnight’

After signing to Rude Records just a few weeks ago, they released their debut studio single ‘Coffee at Midnight’ to widespread acclaim. As of July 16, the track is just shy of 45,000 plays on Spotify.

Recently, we had the chance to catch up with frontwoman Bonnie Fraser to chat about the response to their new single, the band’s evolving sound, and how Avril Lavigne started it all.

Anthony: How have you found the response to ‘Coffee at Midnight’ so far? Are you happy with how it’s been received?

Bonnie: Yeah, we’re… I hate to say the word ‘stoked’, but we are absolutely stoked. We didn’t think it would go this well. We still have people tweeting us and messaging us, being like ‘Hey, just heard Coffee at Midnight! Really digging the track’ kind of thing, and it’s been two weeks. I kinda thought the hype would’ve died after the first week, but it’s still around! So yeah, we’re amazed by the response.

That must be such a good feeling. Getting all these messages and tweets from people… Were you expecting to get such a big response from the public, generally?

No, no way. I mean, signing to Rude (Records) and stuff, I guess we thought it’d be bigger than something we’ve ever released before, but it’s still blowing our expectations. So yeah, this is crazy – we didn’t expect it, no. (laughs)

How do you think that Stand Atlantic’s sound has changed or evolved since you started out?

I don’t know if you know, but we released a demo EP (A Place Apart) like, 2 years ago now. That was cool, but I think with this EP we’ve definitely stepped up just the song writing as a whole. Bands say it all the time, but this record’s way more mature, and we really took the time to focus on vocal melodies and hooks and trying to find our niche sound by blending the pop and the punk together. It’s just mature and more thought out, I guess. So yeah, we’re stoked and really proud of it.

I guess more generally, were you always into pop punk growing up? And if so, how do you think that influenced your sound as a musician?

I definitely was. I don’t even know why, I’ve just always resonated with pop punk. I can’t explain it!

Can relate.

Yeah! My dad is a musician, and I’ve always looked up to him. We always had guitars lying around the house, so I got into it all at a fairly young age. But then, I remember just being so obsessed with this DVD from Good Charlotte. I can’t remember whether it was about their career as a band, or it was just behind the scenes videos of all their music videos, but either way, I was so obsessed with that DVD. I always just wanted to be in a pop punk band ever since I saw that. And Avril Lavigne was the first concert I went to, my first CD – that and Eminem, actually. It’s a random mix, I know!

Having Avril to look up to – when she came around, I’m pretty sure it was a similar time to Good Charlotte, that kind of era – it was just really cool to be able to see a girl doing the pop punk thing. It gave me the thought process of ‘oh, I can do this too! This is sick!’

Then I got into Blink-182, Green Day, The Offspring, all that kind of thing. I just love how much pop punk evolves so smoothly, it’s so weird. Now, pop punk is bands like The Story So Far, Knuckle Puck, and it’s so different when you look back at what it was 10 years ago.

Anyway, yeah I’ve always loved pop punk, to answer your question!

Onto the track again, where did the inspiration for ‘Coffee at Midnight’ come from? Lyrically, where did the ideas come from initially – and then how did the track come together in the recording process?

Well, lyrically – I recently ended a big relationship before we recorded this EP, which was kind of convenient because then I had something to write about. But yeah, it’s the push and pull of those two mindsets I had. I didn’t wanna have it end, obviously. But then later on, reflecting on the actual relationship, I’m just like – why? It was so stupid anyway, you know what I mean?!

So I just thought it was really interesting how you can be so desperate to cling onto something. And then once you let go, you realise ‘why the hell was I even holding it so tight?’ So, there’s that.

And then stylistically, with the EP as a whole it was pretty much all the same, we just wanted to successfully blend pop melodies and hooks with driving guitars and the more aggressive side of pop punk, like Knuckle Puck, The Story So Far, that kind of thing.

On that lyrical point, do you find that making music is cathartic for you?

Totally. I think most musicians would say the same. There’s just something about just putting all your feelings out into the world, and making a piece of art out of it. There’s something that just helps you… I don’t know! It’s kind of like when you write in a journal or something. It’s like you’re just freeing all that pent-up emotion. It’s great!

What can we expect from the rest of your upcoming EP? (Sidewinder, Sep. 15.)

Well I think ‘Coffee at Midnight’ is definitely a snapshot into what people can expect from the whole EP. I’d say that is the punkier side of the rest of the EP but we definitely still have the same undertones throughout the all the songs. Yeah, it’s just – I dunno! They can just kind of expect the same, but different, if that makes sense!

Looking a bit into the future here, but once the Sidewinder EP is out, what’s next for Stand Atlantic?

Hopefully a lot of touring. We’re always writing, so, more of that. It would be really cool to do an album one day, so hopefully that’s in the future prospects, but yeah. Lots of touring, shows, and writing heaps!

That’s all the questions that I had – is there anything else you’d like to add?

No, just thank you for taking the time – really appreciate it!

Stand Atlantic’s Sidewinder EP will be out September 15 via Rude Records.

Check out ‘Coffee at Midnight’ below! You can read my thoughts on the track here.

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